The worst thing about Windows 8 and 8.1 by far was the fact that neither operating system included any built-in games. Sure, you could download them from the Windows Store, but you had to go out and actively look for them. Given that the built-in games are there for slacking off at work, being forced to hunt down new games to play was a huge step in the wrong direction. The built-in Windows games are a cultural phenomenon, and while the lineup has varied over the years, one game above all has come to define workplace boredom and Windows' ability to be there for you when you have nothing better to do: Solitaire.
sol.exe was first included with Windows in 1990's release of Windows 3.0. Since its introduction, its distinctive green baize has been the hallmark of the bored white-collar employee. Gaze across a sea of cubicles, and the presence of Solitaire, immediately visible even at a distance, will instantly reveal workspace slacking. The distracting time waster has probably single-handedly offset all the productivity gains that computers have enabled.
May 22 will be Windows 3.0's 25th birthday, and to celebrate Microsoft is running a Solitaire tournament. It's not immediately clear to me how you run a tournament for a single-player, non-competitive, randomized game where only around 80 percent of games are even theoretically winnable, but why not. Currently Redmond is running an internal competition, and on June 5 it'll be made public. The company promises that its best Solitaire experts will go "head-to-head" with the public.
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